University of Louisville
TOLEDO
No. 16 Baseball Falls 3-1 to Toledo
February 25, 2011 | Baseball
Feb. 25, 2011
Coach McDonnell Discusses Friday's Game
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The 16th-ranked Louisville baseball team dropped its first game of the season with a 3-1 defeat to Toledo on Friday afternoon in the 2011 home-opener at Jim Patterson Stadium.
With the loss, Louisville fell to 3-1 overall, while Toledo improved to 1-3 this season. The two teams will continue their series on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET at Jim Patterson, while Sunday's series finale is set for noon.
The Cardinals were unable to solve Toledo righty Mike Hamann, who allowed just one run on six hits with six strikeouts in 8.0 innings to earn the win and improve to 1-0 on the season. For the Cardinals, sophomore righty Matt Koch (Cherokee, Iowa/Washington HS) was saddled with the loss after allowing just two earned runs on five hits with three strikeouts in 6.0 innings of work.
After Toledo opened the scoring in the first inning with an unearned run, Louisville evened the score at 1-1 in the second inning on a two-out, RBI double to left field by sophomore third baseman Cade Stallings (Knoxville, Tenn./Farragut HS). Junior outfielder Stewart Ijames (Owensboro, Ky./Owensboro Catholic HS), who led off the inning with a single to right, scored from first on the Stallings double for the Cardinals' only run of the game.
The Rockets answered back in the third inning to regain the lead at 2-1 as Matt Delewski scored from second on a two-out, RBI single to left field by Chris Dudics. An inning later, Toledo pushed its lead to 3-1 on the second home run of the season by Dan Sherwood, a leadoff shot to right field in the fourth.
From that point forward, the pitchers controlled the game as the two teams combined for just three hits during the final five innings. Matt Zahel followed Hamann with a scoreless ninth inning to earn his first save of the season, while junior righty Derek Self (Cave City, Ky./Caverna HS) pitched 3.0 shutout innings of relief out of the bullpen for the Cardinals.
Offensively, junior second baseman Ryan Wright (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead HS) and freshman outfielder Adam Engel (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland HS) had two hits each for the Cardinals.
Louisville Notes
- Louisville dropped its home opener for the first time under head coach Dan McDonnell.
- A two-out throwing error by second baseman Ryan Wright in the first inning ended the Louisville pitching staff's scoreless streak at 23.2 innings. The school-record streak of 35.0 innings came in 1929.
- The staff's streak of consecutive innings without allowing an earned run continued until Chris Dudics' RBI single in the third inning, ending at 25.2 innings. Below are the stats for Louisville pitchers during each of the streaks:
Scoreless streakIP H R ER BB SO23.2 11 0 0 7 21Streak without allowing an earned run25.2 12 1 0 8 22
- The Cards have allowed just six runs so far in 2011, the fewest yielded by U of L in the season's first four games since 1961, when the Cardinals permitted just three runs to cross the plate in a 4-0 start (the fewest in school history over the first four contests).
- The six runs are the fewest allowed by Louisville over any four-game period since U of L yielded just three from March 16-20, 2007.
- The Cardinal bullpen has yet to give up a run this season, extending its scoreless stretch to 14.1 innings. U of L relievers have allowed just five hits with 14 strikeouts over that span.
- Louisville starting pitchers have now allowed two earned runs or less in five straight contests dating back to last season.
- Reliever Derek Self tossed his seventh straight scoreless relief outing, spanning 10.0 innings. He has seven strikeouts and one walk over that stretch.
